InterSpiritual
Meditation Course
A 7-Step Process from the World’s Great Contemplative Traditions:
Create a Personal Meditation that is Right for You.
January 10 - February 28, 2025, Fridays,
9:00am-10:30am PST / 12:00pm-1:30pm EST
Live sessions via Zoom (will be recorded).
Create Your Personal Meditation
In the course, you will create 7-step mindful meditation process that aligns with your personal spiritual learning and practice styles. Based on the combined wisdom of the world’s great contemplative traditions, this universal and holistic process guides you create a personal meditation leading to – – –
- Happiness and health,
- Gratitude for life’s many gifts,
- Transformation into your highest potential,
- Love and compassion for self and others,
- Mindful calm and focus,
- Wisdom through meditation,
- Service to others.
Explore the ISM 7-Step Mandala
Click on the arms of the ISM to learn about each of the 7 steps
InterSpiritual Meditation
from the World's Great
Spiritual & Secular Traditions
8-Week ISM Course Membership Includes
- 8 sessions for live class engagement and ongoing self-study.
- Certificate of Completion for those who attend all of the live sessions.
- Live & recorded meditations.
- Instructional video clips from Ed Bastian and teachers from various traditions.
- Online journaling for each student.
- Profile tools for harnessing your personal styles.
- Curated search engine for diverse spiritual and secular resources to help develop a personal contemplative practice.
- Guided audio meditations.
- Discussion forums.
- A mobile-ready platform.
- Community meditations and discussions.
- Support from mentors and facilitators.
- Long-term membership access to this course.
Discovering and Harnessing Your Personal Spiritual Learning Styles
We begin by discovering and harnessing our internal archetypal styles. These are the internal lenses through which we perceive, process and interpret spiritual information and practice. The Spiritual Styles Profile Tool helps us to discover, honor, harness and harmonize our 12 styles. By gradually activating all our styles, we can fulfill our highest human potential.
The Way of the Arts
The Way of the Body
The Way of Devotion
The Way of Imagination
The Way of Love
The Way of Meditation
The Way of the Mystic
The Way of Nature
The Way of Prayer
The Way of Reason
The Way of Relationship
The Way of Wisdom
The 6 ISM Course Learning Objectives
- Experience the benefits of a personal 7-step mindfulness process.
- Identify ways that life meaning and purpose can be enhanced through meditative practice.
- Explore how spiritual learning styles can help create a personal contemplative practice.
- Identify how diverse spiritual and secular resources help develop a personal contemplative practice.
- Integrate the seven-step ISM process into daily life and service to others.
- Actively participate with a diverse and supportive InterSpiritual cohort.
The 8 ISM Course Sessions
Week 1:
Introduction
Week 2:
Motivation
Week 3:
Gratitude
Week 4:
Transformation
Week 5:
Love & Compassion
Week 6:
Mindfulness
Week 7:
Wisdom
Week 8:
Service & Final Course Reflection
How the ISM Course Works
The Instructors
Each class will be led and moderated by Anna Culyer and Don Chatfield, with the support of other certified InterSpiritual Mentors and Facilitators who will share their perspectives and experiences for each of the seven steps.
Anna Cuyler
Anna Culyer is currently in private practice as a spiritual director. Her work has a distinct interspiritual focus, which is why Interspiritual Meditation (ISM) held strong appeal when she was first introduced to it.
Those drawn to Anna as a spiritual director are often people who are “spiritually independent” or lean toward a progressive approach to their spirituality. ISM provides a flexible, inclusive form of meditation, and Anna has introduced it to a number of clients. She incorporates ISM into her own spiritual practice as well.
Prior to establishing her practice, Anna retired from a career dedicated to advocacy and systems change facilitation, focusing on students from marginalized populations. She is a long-time resident of Upstate New York, where there is ample opportunity to hike, write, read, and engage in visual arts. Anna also uses her time to focus on the key people in her life — family, friends, colleagues, and clients.
Rev. Don Chatfield, Ph.D.
Don Chatfield is an interfaith pastor, school of spiritual direction faculty member, and interspiritual director. Author of the interspiritual book, Finding Your Real Self: Five Steps to Personal Authenticity, Don serves as the Lead Pastor of All Souls Interfaith Gathering in Shelburne, Vermont. Don holds the Master of Divinity degree, along with a master’s degree in counseling, and a Ph.D. in human and organizational systems.
Prior to serving All Souls, Don was executive director of the Osage Forest of Peace, an interspiritual retreat center founded in the lineage of Fr. Bede Griffiths. While living in contemplative community at the Forest of Peace, Don deepened his meditation practice and used the seven steps of InterSpiritual Meditation to frame interfaith services. The arc of his ministry also includes nonprofit leadership roles with organizations serving those experiencing homelessness and communities seeking to protect the environment.
Don lives with his wife Karen and their Bichon Frise Lily, within walking distance of the beautiful shores of Lake Champlain. When not working, Don loves to go bicycling, skiing, and hiking.
What spiritual leaders say about our programs
Father Thomas Keating Founder, Centering Prayer
Spiritual Paths is an
excellent program that grew out of the
Snowmass Inter-religious Conference at St. Benedict’s Monastery. As inter-religious dialogue continues to deepen and spread, experienced spiritual practitioners, with some capacity for scholarship, need to suggest what works best for spiritual growth. This is the thrust of the Spiritual Paths conferences and educational activities.
Rabbi Zalman Schachter Founder, Jewish Renewal
Spiritual Paths brings
together the wisdom of
authentic teachers from
the worlds spiritual
traditions, provides an
excellent curriculum
based on those traditions, and leads us toward a new paradigm of InterSpiritual education and practice.
Imam Feisal Abdul-rauf Founder, American Sufi Muslim Association
I am particularly excited
by this initiative of
Edward Bastian and the
Spiritual Paths
Foundation. It as a sea
change in the evolution
of what we used to call
the ecumenical activity. I see us coming into the
next phase of
inter-religious dialogue,
to introduce one another to the inner experience of each others faith traditions. For when we do, we shall come to the
realization that the end is One. In a sense, the
previous intellectual
phase of inter-religious
dialogue was like reading cookbooks on French food, or Indian food what Spiritual Paths is suggesting we do now, is to taste and sample it!
Carol Pearson Past President, Pacifica Graduate University
Dr. Bastian has done for
spirituality what I’ve
worked to do with
archetypes, developing a system through which
anyone–religious or
not–can identify his or
her own natural mode of assessing spiritual truth. Dr. Bastian’s work is a great and important
breakthrough, as so many believe they are not spiritual because they do not follow a particular dogma or because the tradition in which they were raised does not fit for them. His work also can be of assistance to
those within any spiritual tradition to expand their
horizons and to promote
respectful interfaith
dialogue.
Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault Author & Teacher
